Some things go without saying, or at least should. But as Bill Cosby has learned over the past few months, when you say the obvious you sometimes find out it is not very obvious at all.
The comedian and entertainer gave voice to what should be a common sense observation that racism cannot possibly excuse and explain the hostility to learning and education that some African-American youth mistake as their authentic culture. This obvious observation made headlines the world over and kicked off endless debate about the topic, including some criticism of Cosby.
To Cosby’s enduring credit, he has not veered away from the topic and has instead plunged deeper into the educational vortex with his message. Cosby delivered it again in person this week to several Richmond public schools where he warned kids away from the lure of drugs, sex, and gangs and toward a meaningful education.
“Study. That’s all. It’s not tough,” Cosby told students at a Richmond middle school.” “You’re not picking cotton. You’re not picking up the trash. You’re not washing windows. You sit down. You read. You develop your brain.”
Obvious stuff. Universal stuff. But evidently not obvious enough in a large, urban school district like Richmond or, if teachers are to be believed, Charlotte-Mecklenburg. CMS teachers privately lament the lack of discipline and the constant battle they must wage with administrators to hold kids, often African-American but not always, accountable for failing to do simple things like sit down and read.
According to teachers who fear retribution if named, one principal at a CMS high school recently advised teachers that they could no longer turn off their classroom lights while using an overhead projector. The reason? The darkened room invited too much “grab ass” from the students.
This means that the student who would like to learn about the delicate features of the Parthenon or the Sphinx or the Sistine Chapel, or watch how to solve an equation or diagram a sentence, cannot do so because school administrators cannot control aberrant, disruptive behavior. Thus another little cave-in to elements who do not value education is enshrined in official school policy.
Cosby’s talk also touched on another recent CMS-wide issue which suggests that officials have lost sight of universal values and goals. Cosby told the Richmond middle-schoolers to get their minds off of sex and onto class work.
“Everybody knows about sex. Not too many people want to know about algebra,” he said. “Let’s think about love. Let’s think about where it is and where you can get it, but not sex.”
Contrast that message with a recent CMS move to excise language making clear the system frowned on teen pregnancy. The Board of Education voted 5 to 3 to delete the statement “The Board of Education does not condone early marriage and/or pregnancy among students and their beginning of families at an early age” from a policy mission statement.
School board members danced all around why such a change was needed, but is basically seems to boil down to the belief that such an official position somehow harms teens who do find themselves pregnant. But no one in there right mind could deny that teen pregnancy is a painful, sad thing to be avoided.
Does this make teen pregnancy an irredeemable stain, with no good outcome ever possible? No, of course not. The resiliency of the human sprit can recover all manner of serious errors and bad decisions. And let there been no mistake, a pregnant, unwed 16-year-old has made a serious error no matter what official CMS policy might say.
So given the distinct possibility that kids will make bad decisions if left to their own devices, the challenge for adults, including and especially educators, is to give kids clear guideposts for acceptable behavior. This is wrong, this is right. Obvious.
Kids hunger for boundaries and standards, some guide to make sense of the rush of the new emotions, changes, and pressures that surround them. Bill Cosby, as gracious and sincere and public-spirited he has been on this matter, should not have to be the one making this case.
That’s all. It’s not tough.